I Still Dream About You

Merry Christmas, Maggie

AT AROUND TEN ON CHRISTMAS MORNING, MAGGIE HAD JUST FINISHED eating two pop-up waffles off a flimsy paper plate and was now sitting in the kitchen going over figures. She hated to do it, but she had no choice. After the holidays, she was going to have to approach Mrs. Dalton about lowering the asking price. The phone rang.

“Hey, Maggie, it’s David Lee. Merry Christmas!”

“Well, hello, David. How are you?”

“Listen… I hate to bug you at home on Christmas, but do you have any offers on Crestview yet?”

Maggie winced. She hoped she wasn’t getting fired. She said as cheerfully as possible, “No, we had a few people interested, but nothing solid as yet.”

“Well, Mitzi and I have been talking about it, and we think we’re just going to go ahead and buy it ourselves, if that’s okay with you. It would be an all-cash offer. Full price, of course. Both of us grew up right down the street, so it will be like coming home, moving back into the old neighborhood.”

Then Mitzi jumped on the line: “Hey, Maggie… how are you, darling? Isn’t this just wonderful? I’m thrilled to pieces! We’ve got to run, but I can’t wait to see you.”

David came back on the phone. “We won’t keep you, but I’ll call you at the office on Monday, and we can work out all the details.”

This was the best Christmas present she could have received; Maggie couldn’t think of two better people to buy Crestview. Now she could leave, knowing she had saved Crestview from the wrecking ball. She wanted to jump for joy; it was a perfect ending, except for one thing: she had been so excited when they had called, she had totally forgotten about the little problem in the attic.

Oh, no. Should she tell them or not? If she did tell them, she might lose the sale, and if she didn’t, could she live with herself? Selling it to a stranger without disclosing what had been found in the attic was bad enough, but David and Mitzi were friends; she would be just horrified if they were to somehow find out about it later and think she had been trying to deceive them.

MAGGIE SPENT THE rest of the day going back and forth about what to do. She thought long and hard about how she would feel if the shoe were on the other foot. She didn’t think she would mind about the skeleton, but it was the deception that was the issue. She went to bed in turmoil and agonized all night.

THE NEXT MORNING, she sat down and made the dreaded phone call.

“David, it’s Maggie.”

“Hello!”

“Listen, David, before we go any further with Crestview, there’s something you and Mitzi should know.”

“Uh-oh. Is someone else bidding on it?”

“No. It’s not that… It’s, well, when we first got the listing, my partner, Brenda, and I were up in the attic, and we found a little something.”

“Termites? Oh, I expected that.”

“No. Not termites. We had a termite inspection, and it’s really in good shape as far as termites go. It was uh… something else…”

“Mold?”

“No, no mold or structural problems. It’s just that, when we went up to the attic, we found two big steamer trunks that hadn’t been opened since 1946, and so we opened them. At first, we thought it was a bunch of old clothes, but… when we started looking through them, we… well, we unfortunately found a few old bones.”

“Bones?”

“Yes. Well, more than a few really, uh… It was a man’s skeleton. Hanging on a hanger. Of course, we got it out of the house right away, and nobody else knows about it, but I felt that I had to disclose that information, and if you want to withdraw your offer, I will certainly understand.” She closed her eyes and held her breath and waited to hear his response.

“A real skeleton?”

“Yes. Of an unknown man. Found upstairs in the attic. In a trunk.” Maggie held her breath again.

After a long moment, David said, “Oh, hell, Maggie, it doesn’t matter to me. I’m not superstitious about those things.”

“Really?”

“No. I don’t see it as a problem.”

“Well, I think you better talk it over with Mitzi and call me back.”

“All right. I’ll call you back.”

AN AGONIZING HOUR later, the phone rang. “Maggie, it’s Mitzi! Listen, I just walked in the door, and David told me about your finding a skeleton up in the attic, and I think it’s the most exciting thing I ever heard, don’t you? A real mystery. Just like Nancy Drew.”

“That’s exactly what I thought,” said Maggie. “Then you don’t mind?”

“Mind? Oh, honey, you’re so cute to worry, but as I said to David, with so many skeletons in both our families’ closets, what’s one more or less? And it will make perfectly wonderful cocktail conversations, don’t you think? I’m just dying to find out who it is… aren’t you? Grandmother said Mr. Crocker was kind of eccentric; maybe he collected skeletons. It could be somebody famous for all we know.”

“Well… I hadn’t thought about that, but yes, I guess so.”

“Oh, Maggie, I just can’t wait to get back home to Birmingham. I’m so happy about Crestview; I always loved it, and it’s perfect for us until we go on out to St. Martin’s and a wonderful house for David Jr. and his family when they come back. I know you probably think I’m silly, but I’ve already started dreaming about all the parties I’m going to throw.”

No, Maggie did not think she was silly at all. She had done the same thing for years.

After Maggie hung up with Mitzi, she immediately picked up the phone again and dialed Brenda.

“Brenda? We just sold Crestview. Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!”

“What?”

“David and Mitzi Lee called, and they want to buy it. All cash. Full price.”

“You’re kidding?”

“No, and Brenda, guess what else?”

“What?”

“They want the skeleton!”

“They do?”

“Yes.”

“Oh, hooray!”

“In fact, Mitzi was just delighted about it; she thought it would make great cocktail conversation.”

“Oh, hooray!” Brenda said again.

There were some things about white people she would never understand, but the main thing was, they had a sale at last.

THREE DAYS LATER, after all the papers had been FedEx’d to and from New York, and the deposit check had arrived, Maggie could hardly believe it. She had sold Crestview to a member of a good old Birmingham family, one she could trust would keep it intact, and the office had a nice commission. They had a thirty-day escrow, and if all went well, it meant that she could leave the day after the house closed, knowing that Crestview had been snatched out of the jaws of the Beast and was safe forever. Maggie had forgotten how wonderful it felt to feel so good, and just when she was getting ready to leave, too.